Akron was founded in 1825 near the Ohio and Erie Canal, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location at a staircase of locks. The locks were needed due to the higher elevation of the area, which gave rise to the name Summit County as well as Akron, which is a rough translation of summit into Greek (Stewart, pg. 233). After the decline of heavy manufacturing in the 1970s and '80s, the city's industry has since diversified into research, financial, and high tech sectors.

Akron and nearby Canton are often referred to as a single region or considered twin cities. The Akron-Canton Regional Airport is one of many places near the city that is named for both places. While the U.S. Census Bureau still counts the two metropolitan areas separately, if combined, the total population of the Akron-Canton area would equal 1,101,894 people.

History

Canal years

Akron started as a small village on the divide between the St. Lawrence River and the Mississippi River drainage basins. The village was a 43-block square with its main intersection at Exchange and Main Streets; its northern limit was one block beyond State Street. It was renamed South Akron when Cascade, an adjacent village north of State Street and centered at Market and Howard Streets, changed its name to North Akron.

South Akron was built to serve people using the Ohio Canal. North Akron developed around a construction project originally intended to provide increased water power for industries. In 1836 the villages joined. The completion of the Cross-cut Canal along Main Street in 1839 started Akron on its climb to industrial importance. Coal, a major railroad, and manufacturing growth from the Civil War contributed to a population increase from 3,500 to 10,000 inhabitants between 1860 and 1870.

Because of physical obstacles—the steep hill on West Market Street, the Little Cuyahoga Valley, and the swamp south of the City—Akron grew to the east. This encouraged the annexation of Spicertown, centered on Spicer and Exchange, and then Middlebury, which was centered where the Arlington and Market Street commercial area is now located.

The Rubber Capital of the World

Akron’s history and the history of the rubber industry are intertwined. The rubber industry transformed Akron from a small canal town into a fledgling city. The birth of the rubber industry started in the 1800s, long before America fell in love with the automobile. Akron was incorporated as a village in 1835 and as a city in 1865. In 1869, B.F. Goodrich started the first rubber company in Akron. In 1915, the area increased from 7,254 acres (29.38 km²) to 16,120 acres (65.29 km²). The population rose approximately 200%—from 69,067 in 1910 to 208,435 in 1920. General Tire was founded in 1915 by the O’Neil’s whose department store became an Akron landmark.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company became America's top tire manufacturer and Akron was granted the moniker of “The Rubber Capital of the World”. Goodyear's president, F.A. Seiberling, had been building homes costing around $3,500 for employees in what would become known as Goodyear Heights. Likewise, Harvey Firestone began building employee homes in what would be called Firestone Park. These leaders were responding to the housing crunch caused by the boom in the rubber business.

Akron was, indeed, booming. For a time it was the fastest-growing city in the country, its population exploding from 69,000 in 1910 to 208,000 in 1920. People came for the jobs in the rubber factories from many places, including Europe. Of those 208,000, almost one-third were immigrants and their children. Among the factory workers in the early 1920s was a young Clark Gable.

In the 1950s and '60s Akron saw a surge in industry as use of the automobile took off. But while America was still using bias-ply tires, Europe had already seen the wave of the future in radial tires. Radials had almost three times the tread life of bias-ply tires, and Akron’s rubber mills were not equipped to handle the manufacturing requirements. As a result many companies tried to produce hybrid tires, which were troublesome at best. Firestone manufactured the ill-fated 500 series, which was recalled in the millions. B.F. Goodrich eventually replaced its old equipment with new machinery to enable the manufacturing of radial tires.

In the 1970s and '80s the rubber industry experienced a major decline as a number of strikes and factory shutdowns delivered the final blows to the industry. In ten years the number of people working within the rubber industry was slashed in half. By the early '90s Goodyear was the only remaining rubber manufacturer based in Akron.

Zeppelins and blimps

Beginning in the early 1910s, Goodyear began experimenting with airship development, and in 1917 created a subsidiary with the Zeppelin Company to build dirigibles in the United States. During the 1920s and 1930s, Akron and Lakehurst, New Jersey, were the American centers of dirigible research and manufacturing. The United States' largest airships, Akron, and Macon, were both built in Akron. After their tragic accidents in 1933 and 1935, and the Hindenburg Disaster in 1937, rigid airships were abandoned and Goodyear focused on the production of blimps. The US Navy used many blimps in World War II for aerial observation, and Goodyear famously began using them to advertise. Though very few new airships are built today, the Goodyear Blimps remain a popular corporate symbol. The Goodyear Airdock, now owned by Lockheed Martin, is, along with several other airship hangars, one of the largest buildings in the world without interior supports.

The Akron Section was presented with the SPE Section Education Award for 2001.

AkronNewsNow.com is one of 54 news organizations in the U.S. and Canada recognized for news excellence with the prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award.

AkronNewsNow.com was also honored last month with the Ohio Associated Press Broadcaster's Association award for best website, medium market radio category.

Akron officially dedicates fire equipment purchased for New York City. Hundreds gathered November 27, 2001 downtown for the dedication. The equipment, a 95-foot ladder truck, two EMS vehicles and three SUV police cruisers were purchased through the Greater Akron Fire Truck Fund that raised $1.39 million in two weeks.Akron in Pop Culture

The full movie "The Instructor"(1983) was shot in the city of Akron, mostly downtown and firestone park.

Chrissie Hynde made a song called "Downtown(Akron)" and "My City Was Gone" referring to the city.

V.E.C.'s hit "AK-Rowdy" was about Summit county and Akron's northside mainly.

In Stephen King 's movie and novel "Needful Things", the supernatural mysterious Mr. Leland Gaunt claims to be from Akron, Ohio.

On the bottom of LeBron James Nike Zoom LeBron 5 is a map of Akron; on his right forearm is a "330" tattoo with a fire burning in the background Done by Shawn Rome of Evolutions tattoos in Akron and the Nike Dunk Low - SVSM (Lebron James) color way green, gold and white derived from St. Vincent - St. Mary High School.

In the hit NBC TV show The Office, the fictional business Dunder Mifflin has an office located in Akron, Ohio.

The Air Zoom LeBron V China Edition along with others feature the map of Akron on the tongue and bottom of the shoe.

On the Prison Break episode The Message Bellick informs the Agent that the quotes used by Michael are chapter titles in the Alcoholics Anonymous book, by analysing the chapters in the book, Mahone quickly discovers that Michael is planning to rendezvous with Sara at the St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio.

Nike Dunk Low - Akron (Lebron James) was created for LeBron's family and friends, it feature a black and gold outline of Ohio and a star marking Akron's location.

In Vancouver, Canada a pilot for the television series "The Virgin of Akron, Ohio" was shot in December of 2007.

In the 2008 movie Blackout main character CJ was killed for an Akron born Lebron James number 23 jersey near the end of the movie.

On Chino Nino's album "Get Wet" the song track "AK Anthem" was formed for the city of Akron's minority neihborhoods.

Former local rap group "AKF" shot the video for their song "No Nuts No Glory" in Akron

The freeway in Akron was initially the first choice for the location to shoot the freeway chase scene in the movie Matrix Reloaded but the crew decided not to shoot there as it would have taken one hour to back up all cars as to prepare for the start of a take.

Akron rock band C.D. Truth made a few songs with music videos on Akron such as "I hate rt.8" and "We got the blimp".

Former literary editor of Esquire Adrienne Miller who grew up in a suburb of Akron wrote a book titled "The Coast of Akron" which takes place in the city.

Hometown artist Big Jaz's song "west side hilltop" video is shot in Akron.

Rubber City Clothing makes screen printed t-shirts and hoodies in Downtown Akron. Some designs include "Big Blimpin", "Route 8", "AK-Rowdy", "Akron WITNESSED First" and "Akron - Where the Weak are Killed and Eaten".

In the Robot Chicken episode "Badunkadunk." The co-anchor reports that he and Teela were having a sex romp that was caught on tape, similar to the Paris Hilton sex tape incident, and Man-At-Arms plans to file a lawsuit towards him when he speaks at a press conference. In the Where Are They Now segment of "Toy Meets Girl," Beast Man is currently dodging child support payments while living under an assumed name in Akron, Ohio.

Geography and climate

Akron is located at (41.073155, -81.517900).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62.4 square miles (161.6 km²), of which, 62.1 square miles (160.8 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.9 km²) of it (0.54%) is water.

Akron has a humid continental climate, with cold but changeable winters, wet, cool springs, warm (sometimes hot) and humid summers, and cool, rather dry autumns. Precipitation is fairly well-distributed through the year, but summer tends to have the most rainfall (and also, somewhat paradoxically, the most sunshine), and autumn the least. The mid-autumn through early-spring months tend to be quite cloudy, with sometimes less than 30% possible sunshine. The cloudiest month is December, and the sunniest month is usually July, which is also, somewhat ironically, the wettest month.

Winters tend to be cold, with average January high temperatures of 32 °F (0 °C), and average January lows of 17 °F (-8 °C), with considerable variation in temperatures. During a typical January, high temperatures of over 50 °F (10 °C) are just as common as low temperatures of below 0 °F (-18 °C). Snowfall is lighter than the snowbelt areas to the north, but is still somewhat influenced by Lake Erie, generally averaging about 47.1 inches (118.7 cm) per winter. During a typical winter, temperatures drop below 0 °F (-18 °C) on about 6 occurrences, generally only during the nighttime hours.

Summers are warm, sometimes hot, with average July high temperatures of 83 °F (28 °C), and average July lows of 62 °F (17 °C). Summer weather is more stable, generally humid with thunderstorms fairly common. Temperatures reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) about 7 times each summer, on average. In hot summers, such as 1988, however, as many as 30 days over 90 °F (32 °C) have been observed, and in cooler summers, such as the summer of 2000, the temperature may never reach 90 °F (32 °C). Temperatures over 100 °F (38 °C) are rare (about once per decade on average), most recently occurring on several occasions in the hot summer of 1988.

The all-time record high in Akron of 104 °F (40 °C) was established on August 6, 1918, and the all-time record low of −25 °F (−32 °C) was set on January 19, 1994.

There were 90,116 households out of which 28.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.5% were married couples living together, 17.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. 33.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,835, and the median income for a family was $39,381. Males had a median income of $31,898 versus $24,121 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,596. About 14.0% of families and 17.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.7% of those under age 18 and 9.7% of those age 65 or over.

Akron has a metropolitan population of 694,960 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Akron is also part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which was the 14th largest in the country with a population of over 2.9 million according to the 2000 Census.

The Akron City Council has thirteen members. Ten are elected to represent wards and three are elected at large.

In 1915, a new municipal water system was established. It also included a reservoir on the Cuyahoga River with storage capacity of 2,385,200,000 gallons (9,027,982,000 liters), a complete purification system, and a pumping station.

Education

Higher education

The city is home to the University of Akron, which serves 23,000 students, making it the fourth largest public university in the state. It is regarded as a world leader in polymer research. The University recently underwent a $300 million dollar construction project, which added nine new buildings and renovated fourteen, and closed Carroll and Union Streets. The University also offers a combined B.S./M.D. program with the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. A new football stadium, InfoCision Stadium Summa Field, is being built on-campus as a replacement for the University's previous stadium, the Rubber Bowl.

Secondary education

Elementary and secondary education is mainly provided by the Akron City Schools, which are currently going through a 15-year, $800 million rebuilding process, remodeling some schools and entirely replacing others. Some schools will be closing permanently due to a drop in enrollment. The school board could not get a levy passed to pay for its portion of the construction expense so it worked out an arrangement with the city of Akron where the city will use the money from a new income tax to pay for Community Learning Centers, which will serve as schools but be owned by the city. Meanwhile the academic situation has improved recently as the city’s schools have been moved from “Academic Watch” to “Continuous Improvement” by the Ohio Department of Education.

Private education

Akron also has many private, parochial and charter schools. Akron Public Schools made headlines in 2004 when a freshman student of Akron Digital Academy, the district’s own online charter school, was not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, an event later covered and satirized by The Daily Show. St. Vincent - St. Mary High School, just west of Akron’s downtown, also made headlines when basketball star LeBron James was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers first overall after his graduation in 2003. Akron-based Summit Academy Schools is the largest system of non-profit community schools in the country which are specifically designed for students with learning disorders such as ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome, high-functioning autism and PDD-NOS.

Culture and entertainment

Akron has a diverse heritage of restaurants and shopping centers. Quaker Square, located in the heart of Akron’s downtown, was redeveloped in the early 1970s as a downtown mall, created from the old Quaker Oats factory, which originally operated at that location. The oat silos had been transformed into unique, round hotel rooms. Recently, the University of Akron purchased this complex for its own use—primarily as residence-hall space .

Highland Square, located in near West Akron and anchored by the historic Highland Theatre, is a well-known entertainment district, featuring antique stores, retail shops, and several unique restaurants and taverns. Other unique and historically significant Akron neighborhoods include Goodyear Heights and Firestone Park, originally developed and designedfor employees of the large Akron rubber companies. Likewise, Northwest Akron is home to a number of large mansions, many of which, like the famous Stan Hywet Hall, were built early in the 20th century for the upper management of these companies, as well as the city's many other industries.

During the summer, Akron hosts the National Hamburger Festival, a tribute to the city's role in the invention of the hamburger. Each summer Akron hosts the All American Soap Box Derby. Children from across the country race their homemade, gravity-powered race cars down the steep hill at Derby Downs in the shadow of the Goodyear Airdock.

Adjacent to the Derby Downs race hill is a outdoor skatepark. The park features concrete ramps, including two bowls going as deep as , a snake run, two hips, a stair set with handrail, many smaller quarter pipes and a variety of grind boxes. Positioned just a few feet from the Akron Skatepark is a BMX course where organized races are often held in the warmer months.

Television

Akron is unique in that despite its size, it does not form its own television market, primarily due to being less than 40 miles (64km) from Cleveland. It is part of the Cleveland-Akron (Canton) Media market. However, four stations in the market are licensed to Akron.

WAOH and WEAO serve the city of Akron specifically, while WBNX and WVPX identify themselves as "Akron-Cleveland", serving the entire Northeast Ohio market. Akron has no native news broadcast, having lost its only news station when the former WAKC became WVPX in 1996. WVPX and Cleveland's WKYC later provided a joint news program, which was cancelled in 2005.

Infrastructure

Health

Akron's adult hospitals are owned by two health systems, Summa Health System and Akron General Health System. Summa Health System operates Akron City Hospital and St. Thomas Hospital, an orthopedic hospital located in the North Hill neighborhood. Akron General Health System operates Akron General Medical Center. Akron Children's Hospital is an independent entity that specializes in pediatric and burn care. Both Akron City Hospital and Akron General have been on the U.S. News and World Report Magazine's list of "Best Hospitals" many times. It is worth noting that both AGMC and Summa are designated Level I Trauma Centers. By comparison, Akron's much larger urban neighbor to the north, Cleveland, has only one.

Transportation

Akron’s transportation needs are fulfilled by two major interstates, Interstate 76 and Interstate 77. I-76, I-77, and Route 8 meet at one central interchange, which is commonly known by the same name. The central interchange divides the city into four quadrants. The Interstate 76 Eastern Expressway weaves through much of Akron’s warehouse sector and the Goodyear world headquarters is easily visible. I-76 is paired with I-77 for about two miles (3 km) west of the central interchange, and then splits off again, with I-76 later being paired with US-224 and I-77 heading north towards Cleveland. This portion of highway is currently under review by ODOT for reconstruction. The Western highway is a major route to Cleveland and Columbus, and is a near term destination to Fairlawn, a major commercial area. Route 8 has been overhauled numerous times and serves as a major entryway for the north-eastern suburbs, namely Cuyahoga Falls, Munroe Falls, Stow and Hudson. There is also one highway to the south, U.S. Highway 224, part of which is also notated as Interstate 277 (I-277 connects I-77 with I-76). The Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, commonly known as the Innerbelt, includes part of the longer Route 59. It serves the very center of the city, and was supposed to run from the I-76 / I-77 to Route 8. However, due to poor planning, the Innerbelt was never completed and only runs to Main St./Howard St. Route 59 also lacks direct I-76W / I-77N inbound and offbound ramps, furthering its problems. Mayor Don Plusquellic has brought up the idea of tearing up the northern end of the Innerbelt in order to free land for development, although some residents have stated that they would like to see it completely connected as originally planned.

Public transportation is available through the METRO RTA system, which has a fleet of over two hundred buses and trolleys, and operates local routes as well as running commuter buses into downtown Cleveland. SARTA also has a bus line running between Canton and Akron. Amtrak closed its station near Quaker Square in 2005. Airline passengers travelling to or from Akron use either the Akron-Canton Regional Airport in Green or Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Two low-fare airlines, Frontier Airlines and AirTran Airways, have begun serving Akron-Canton in recent years, making that airport a fairly popular alternative for travellers to or from the Cleveland area. Akron Fulton Airport serves private planes and is the home of the Lockheed Martin Airdock, where the Goodyear blimps were formerly stored and maintained. The Goodyear blimps are now housed outside of Akron in a facility on the shores of Wingfoot Lake in Suffield.

The Towpath is a regional bike and hike trail that follows the Ohio and Erie Canal. It is not completed in downtown Akron, but stops just north of Innerbelt and just south of I-76/I-77.